School Standards and Framework Act 1998

101 Permitted selection: pupil banding

(1) Subject to subsections (2) to (4), the admission arrangements for a maintained school may make provision for selection by ability to the extent that the arrangements are designed to secure—

(a) that in any year the pupils admitted to the school in any relevant age group are representative of all levels of ability among applicants for admission to the school in that age group, and

(b) that no level of ability is substantially over-represented or substantially under-represented.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply if the arrangements have the effect that, where an applicant for admission has been allocated to a particular range of ability by means of some process of selection by reference to ability, some further such process is required or authorised to be carried out in relation to him for the purpose of determining whether or not he is to be admitted to the school.

(3) The introduction for a maintained school of admission arrangements to which subsection (1) applies shall be one of the alterations to such a school which are prescribed for the purposes of section 28.

(4) Such arrangements are not authorised for any school by this section unless proposals for the school to have such arrangements have been published under section 28 and have fallen to be implemented under Schedule 6.

(5) Where the admission arrangements for a school make both such provision for selection by ability as is mentioned in subsection (1) above and such provision for selection by aptitude as is mentioned in section 102(1), nothing in this section shall be taken to prevent those arrangements—

(a) from authorising or requiring a process of selection to be carried out at any stage for the purpose of establishing that an applicant for admission has a relevant aptitude; or

(b) from having the effect of giving priority to such an applicant with a relevant aptitude irrespective of his level of ability.